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Virgin Radio
9 Apr 2024, 11:12
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Eddie Marsan plays Amy Winehouse’s dad, Mitch, in new biopic movie, Back to Black, and he told Chris Evans that the reason the film works is “because there's a pervading narrative, and this subtly challenges that narrative”.
The award winning actor joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with webuyanycar to discuss the new film, which was directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and written by Matt Greenhalgh.
Eddie told Chris: “I think the courage of Sam as a director and Matt, the writer, is that they didn't want to go for this binary narrative of both Mitch and Blake being the villains. What Sam wanted to do with the idea of Blake, she wanted to see why Amy fell in love with him, because the film was shot from Amy's perspective.”
Eddie plays Mitch Winehouse, who worked for many years as a taxi driver. “He used to be a double glazing salesman. And then he did The Knowledge and became a taxi driver. He said, ‘I just love London,’ and drove around London,” Eddie explained. “Then, what Amy used to do, because he comes from the East End, Amy used to ask him to put her in a taxi and take him around the East End and tell him all the stories about the Jewish East End, and when he grew up. There's something about Amy, she does look like a bit of a gangster's moll.”
Alongside Eddie, the film stars Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse and Jack O’Connell as Amy’s husband Blake Fielder-Civil. “Jack O'Connell plays such a brilliant role in this, he sings The Leader of the Pack, and the way he sings it, every woman in that cinema thinks ‘God, I'd fall in love with him,’ and that's what you should do, because you should be in Amy’s shoes. You're going on Amy's journey, It isn't about demonising these people. You can see why she loved him.”
The Fair Play and Happy Go Lucky actor continued: “I spoke to Mitch about the relationship with Blake, and how they could tell that their daughter was in love with him, but they knew that they were both in a kind of dysfunctional, drug-addled relationship.
“But what can you do? Your daughter's in love, and she's an adult, there's not much you can do. The family tried nine interventions, they tried to get her sectioned, and they tried to get her medical help nine times. And no one knew. Everyone thinks that the one song Rehab means that the family didn't want to help her. And it's not true.”
Speaking about the immensely talented singer getting clean of drugs, Eddie said: “Amy always wanted to be a mum, and she’s in Bar Italia in Soho and she sees a little boy, and she decides ‘Dad, take me to rehab’ and he takes her and she gets clean.”
Amy died on 23rd July, 2011, aged just 27. “She was clean of drugs by two to three years,” Eddie said. “And the way poor Amy died was she had a binge-drinking session the night before she died, and her body gave up then. It was so weak, but also, she had suffered from other conditions from about the age of 15. So she just damaged her body.”
He told Chris: “Mitch showed me a photograph of her two weeks before she died, and she was the picture of health. She looked so well.”
Speaking further about the new biopic, which arrives in cinemas on Friday 12th April, the acting star said: “I think the reason this works is because there's a pervading narrative, and this subtly challenges that narrative. What this film does, it makes you realise, it doesn’t make her a victim, you celebrate her brilliance. And also you have incredible compassion for people with addiction in their family.”.
Eddie is also starring in brand new biographical drama miniseries Franklin, which is also released this Friday on Apple TV+. Read all about it later today at virginradio.co.uk.
Back To Black is in UK cinemas on Friday 12th April.
For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with webuyanycar weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.
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